Real Estate Investor from Union, New Jersey

I'm working a deal with an abandoned property that has an old Associates Financial Services Company attached. It originated in 1990 and I was under the impression, from researching my county recorder's office and from my experience, that these liens were being handled by Citifinancial. However, I can't seem to get the right people on the phone to see if I can get the lien discharged.

Does anyone have any experience with discharging 'Associates' liens or have a number for Citifinancial's Lien Release Dept.?

Real Estate Investor from Central Valley, California

Ibrahim S Hey IB: are you sure you need a release? Have you had a title prelim done? What is title asking for? Your title company may have current/relevant contact info for getting a release or may not even need it. I say let them do the work.

Yesterday I got a prelim for a property I'm closing on this week. Clean title as expected except, but it showed two small open mortgages from 1979 and 1980. The lender was a local private RE company that's no longer in business, one is owner deceased, the other is in conservatorship. I'm almost certain the loans are paid off as the same lenders loaned again against the property in 1980 and that loan was released in 1998.

Title tells me I need to find someone to release the liens. Hours of research and phone time and I find the heirs of one partner and the conservator of the other. This morning, after prodding the title dept. a little further, they somehow find sufficient evidence that the liens are released and issue a new title report. Wasted most of my day yesterday. In the future, I'll be requesting a double check before I do work that's not needed. :)

Real Estate Investor from Union, New Jersey

K. Marie I knew you couldn't resist this thread. lol - You and Kevin are right in that I need to let the title co. deal with this. Been a while since I handled one of these. 6-8 years ago my title co. didn't have any contact info on this. Maybe things have changed. The loan originated in 1990, however, so I'm almost certain that my TC will make me get this released. There are 2 others that originated in 1973 and 1976 that are still open as well. I'm waiting for official word but I think the TC will omit these two. We'll see. I'll keep you all posted. Thanks again.

Real Estate Investor from Central Valley, California

IB-NJ: True, you of anyone here at BP would know I wouldn't be able to resist a title issue thread. But how could you know that the last 24 hours of my life has been all about mortgage lien releases? Seriously man, that's only a fraction of what I do. And still, this week has me glued to my computer and email updates from the title company. Heaven help me, it's only Tuesday.

I say think positive AND let title do a some of the heavy lifting this time. Sincerely, Kristine-CA

from Shawnee Mission, Kansas

Ibrahim,
I see your older post about Associate Financial. I am trying to fing out if they still exist and if not, who may now be responsible the lien they have on a house I just purchased.
Can you help?

Real Estate Investor from Union, New Jersey

Steve - my experience with their liens is that they no longer exists and citifinancial holds their notes. Check with your county recorder and see who has been discharging their mortgages as of late. That should tell you where to go to get it settled. Good luck.

from Missouri City, Texas

We are in a fight for our deceased mother's house. The mortgagee was Associates Financial Services, Inc. but in researching this company we found out that it was bought by Citigroup. We have documents that state that credit life was paid for my mother's house, but we can't get anyone on the phone that will tell us who the insurance company was. We have called the Texas Department of Insurance, the original agent, new agent, homeowners policy insurance company, etc. We are being told by citimortgage that she didn't have credit life, then she cancelled it when she agreed to some benefits program, and they don't know where we should go. They are continuosly taking us to court to attempt to foreclose on the house. The title company seems to be in the same location as the Associates Financial Services was, so does that mean that Citimortgage has everything? If there is anyone that can give us some direction, please help us! Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Real Estate Investor from Union, New Jersey

@Delundra Williams - are you saying that Associates Financial Services Company (AF) is actually foreclosing? In my case, AF is not the foreclosing lender. In fact the city is foreclosing and AF was about to be wiped away (the property is in an estate with no other assets). And I've been able to get a few AF mortgages discharged over the years and they have all been through Citigroup. My particular case in the property I mentioned above has the AF mortgage with Citimortgage (NOT Citifinancial). They say they will discharge it so we'll see. PM me and I'll dig up the contact info for you.

Real Estate Investor from Union, New Jersey

Dennis, citimortgage's phone # is 800-283-7918 . You will have to follow up with them and make sure that whatever requested info you fax them is received. Or else risk them telling you 2-3 weeks later that they never received it.